Marcel Desaulniers has a feverish brain, and the fever has been induced by chocolate. In "Death by Chocolate Cakes," he provides recipes for mind-blowing chocolate experiences from Chocolate Peanut Butter Some More (Please) Cakes and Chocolate Chip Goober Gobble Cupcakes to Chocolate Peanut Root Beer Rumble to Cocoa Skillet Cake with Tequila Sunshine Salsa. The range of his imagination is breathtaking, and we should count ourselves lucky that the reach of his culinary prowess is just as broad. These recipes are wonderful!

Those who like to wing it in the kitchen may chafe a little under Desaulniers' firm touch--the recipes are nothing if not detailed, but that's because Desaulniers has the experience and expertise to tell you exactly how to do it. If you follow his directions, you can plan on spending a little longer in the kitchen than usual--but you can also bank on the fact that your family and friends will be first amazed, then delighted that you prepared anything from this book. Don't worry if you're not an incredibly experienced baker. You'll look at the level of detail involved and be intimidated at first, but in fact, Desaulniers' recipes are practically custom-made for the baker who likes a lot of hand-holding. He guides you from one step to the next with assurance and grace.

Desaulniers knows that we eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths, and he is rightly known for preparing desserts which are as magnificent to gaze upon as they are to eat. He is aided greatly in this by the evocative photography of Duane Winfield, who captures with loving detail every chocolate cake oozing chocolate ganache, every glossy icing, and every delicious crumb of chocolate goodness.

Recipes I highly recommend include the Chocolate Heart of Darkness Cakes (in which you insert frozen chocolate truffles into cake batter just before baking--soooooooo amazingly good you just have to try it!) and the Chocolate Chunk Cookie Cakes (which I made with my 8-year old son and 5-year old daughter, who loved these as much as my husband and I did!). This book's a definite keeper!

If you are a chocolate lover that loves to bake, this is the book for you. You will be amazed at the array of desserts that you can make. This book offers pictures for most of the recipes, so you will always know what is it you are making. The recipes are well written and they give excellent tips in the Chef's Touch Section. The book carefully explains the steps in preparing the recipes, so you will never be left in the dark. My family thought they died and went to heaven when they tried the Chocolate Heart of Darkness Cakes.

For chocolate lovers, bakers, and people who love to eat sweets, this book is for you!! First of all, it is a beautiful book -- with a luscious photo to accompany every recipe. I particularly find the "chef's touch" to be very helpful especially for those desserts that can be made over two to three days (saves the cook from having to do everything in one day!). Having tried Desaulniers' recipes in prior books, I find them to be quite detailed (although some can be challenging). I like the very organized way the recipes are laid out together with the equipment needed. I have yet to try out a recipe of his that did not get rave reviews from my dinner guests!! My only problem with the D by C Cakes, is which recipe to start with!!! What a yummy dilemna!!

This was by far my sister and my absolute favorite children's book. I remember my school librarian reading it to my class in First grade. I checked that book out every time it was available. I would love, love, love to have a copy for myself and to read to my 4 children. Please, reprint this book. It was/is such a loved story!!

When I was a little girl, I used to look forward to going to the library, where downstairs towards the right on the shelf was my favorite book, "The Sugar Mouse Cake". I would pull it off the shelf and sit down and read it, each time with the same enthusiasm and excitement as the first. I am 32 years old and I still think of this book from time to time and I smile. It is out of print but I'm working on obtaining it so I may pass the special story and illustrations on to another little girl with hopes that she will cherish it the way I do.

This book was my son and daughter's favorite book. They are now parents themselves and are trying to find a copy for their children. I have kept my copy and read it to children who visit my home; they all sit motionless listening to the wonderful story. Cannot imagine why it is out of print!

This book is informative, insightful, and intelligent. It's not a trendy cookbook with a lot of flash, it's just got good recipes that come out perfect. I highly recommend it to any cook.

Many cookbooks about baking have words like "bible" or "complete" in them. Yet, none really deserve the term. They are never complete nor correct enough to warrant the title. This book, however, has earned the rights to these words. It originally started out as a club for professional bakers to solve their common baking problems that metastasized into this baking cookbook. It features many highly respected names such as Flo Braker, John Phillip Carroll, Marion Cunningham, Carol Field, Fran Gage, and Alice Medrich. The whole thing is edited by Rick Rodgers.

I have often heard people, including many respected food writers, lament that there ought to be a comprehensive book about baking that covers all of the important aspects and types of recipes and techniques. Well, here it is. It delves into such arcana as: the differences between genoise, sponge cake, chiffon cake, and angel food cake; the proper way to measure flour (in fact, different chapters use different methods, so read the recipes carefully and follow them to the letter; similar comments apply to which rolling pin or what kind of flour to use); and 4 different recipes for pie dough using either lard, cream cheese, shortening, or butter. The same applies to the chapter on tarts. It starts out with 5 recipes for crusts (pate brisee, pate sablee, pate sucree, tartlet dough, and quick puff pastry), and the subsequent recipes for tarts start with one of one of the crusts. The chapter on yeast breads is especially noteworthy.

Each chapter is written by a different person, and functions as a self contained primer on a particular subject. Each subject is treated systematically and thoroughly. In fact, each chapter could be published on its own as reference work on its subject. One chapter often contains more information than a standard cookbook on baking. The chapters are: ingredients, tools, basic cakes, fancy cakes, pies, tarts, fruit desserts, cookies, muffins and quick breads, yeast breads, custards, and frostings.

There are 2 important features in this book that are absent from most others about baking. First, all of the recipes are the result of extensive testing by the bakers (of which, incidentally, there are many more than just a baker's dozen or 13), and not just a "traditional" one someone habitually uses. Second, all of the recipes are solid, old-fashioned favorites (like: brownies, biscuits, doughnuts, banana bread, apple pandowdy, pecan pie, cornbread) that have been staples of the family table for decades; there are no trendy recipes here for weird baked goods that you will never make. On the down side, there are a couple of editing mistakes: p. 221 and 224 both refer to "page 000".

If you can bake cakes from boxed mixes and make cookies from the recipe on the back of the package of chocolate chips, then you are ready for this book. Even experienced bakers will learn much from the collective intelligence in this book. If there is only one cookbook about baking on your shelf, then this is the one to have.

Many cookbooks that deal with baking assume you know and understand all of the fundamentals. This one doesn't treat you like a beginner but it doesn't assume you are a pastry chef. Instructions are clear and concise and very easy to follow. The recipes are interesting and fun. Knowing some of the people in the book makes me even more willing to trust their guidance since I know a tremendous amount of testing for each recipe was undertaken by the group as a whole. This is a great book for great bakers and a fantastic book for beginners. Check out the ginger cookie recipe!

Beware of the calories you can end up creating in some of the the most delicious cakes I have ever made, and I am already an experienced baker....
This book is so good, the cakes are beautiful-- the recipes are well written, obviously tested, and just superb. The problem is that because they are good and easy cakes to bake-- some of us who may be better served with less sugar may throw that advice out in favor of say, the Fresh Fruit Pound Cake?
And as a plus, you can play with the recipes-- add your own personal touches or flavors and not ruin, but rather enhance these cakes.

So far I've made the Browned Butter Cake and the Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, and they both came out great. I was about to give up on baking, until making these recipes. Her detailed instructions for every recipe, guarantees goodness.

Growing up in Asia, I never had the experience of watching my Mom bake. I never saw a family that had an oven in the kitchen. I didn't expect too much when I bought this book to begin my baking expedition. I read the introductory instructions to begin with. From there, I sailed on a pleasant trip to the world of cake baking. Ninety percent of the times, the results are good; and I have to blame the other ten percent on my lack of following the instruction to letters.
I'd like to thank Carole for opening up the world of baking to me. This is the best and mostly used book I have.

frosting on the cake is the first Karin Kallmaker book that I have read and I want to read more. I was told "you won't be able to put it down." I couldn't. "you'll crave more." I do. The stories themselves were good in their own right and I didn't feel lost by not having read the novels previous, but I could also tell that those novels are good and I can't wait to read them. I loved reading Come Here, not only was it a good short piece but I liked the way it was written, the perspective, it made the whole thing more intense. Another favourite was Wild Things Are Free, again it was well written and had a good storyline, but the insecurity that Faith felt really touched me and it made a wonderful read. I'd definatly recommend this book if you're a fan or not.

There aren't a lot of authors who would take on the challenge of writing a sequel to their books. Karin Kallmaker takes things even further by offering a series of short stories that take up right where 10 of her books left off. She uses these stories to allow the reader to learn more about the diverseness that life can offer....but uses our favorite characters to show the way. Subjects like communication in relationships, parenting, patience and persevereance in love, midlife changes (thank you) for the good, and in the final chapter, answers some questions that all of us have often wondered about the behind the scenes of each book she wrote. I found myself pleasantly suprised at some chapters and also found myself moved emotionally and erotically with others. I couldn't put the book down once I started it and recommend it as a must read for all Kallmaker fans.

I was so enamored of Karin Kallmaker's "Sleight of Hand" and other books under her Laura Adams pen name, that I decided I had to read something of her romance novels, even though I usually don't like the genre that much. So how could I go wrong with a collection of new short stories featuring a taste of each of her romance novels?

Not only did I not go wrong, I got way more than I expected! I knew the writing would be good, but I was engaged and enthralled by the characters, the plots and the steamy, steamy scenes that permeate almost every story. I knew nothing about the novels these stories were inspired by, and it didn't matter. I laughed out loud several times ("Mechanics" and "Hot Flash" got me going) and had to fan myself repeatedly ("Wild Things are Free" and "Smudges" were off the meter for heat).

These stories are all firmly within the romance genre, and her Laura Adams persona doesn't make an appearance, which disappointed me. But I forgive all after reading "Come Here" and "Smudges" at least three times each in a single day. The first person present tense immediacy of both stories display some excellent prose and truly thigh-clenching erotic qualities. All of the stories ring with emotional truth conveyed by believable, well-constructed characters. It's obvious that there's an untold history, but it didn't dim my enjoyment of this collection one iota.

I have finally found a dessert cookbook that meets all the criteria I look for in making a dessert - simple to make, flavorful ingredients, beautiful presentation and of course delicious to eat. I love the creativity and simplicity of the desserts in this book. David Lebovitz is a dessert maker after my own heart. He combines wonderful, fresh, flavorful ingredients with creativity and produces unique, delicious desserts that are works of art! This has become my all time favorite dessert cookbook. I highly recommend this book.

I just received David's book, ROOM FOR DESSERT. It is a wonderful combination of delicious dessert recipes and modern innovative flavors. I like the way in which he uses all-natural ingredients, and includes a detailed list of where to get them. The recipes are straight-forward and easy to understand. The photos are luscious, as well. I certainly have "room for (David's) desserts !!"

Room For Dessert has become my favorite dessert book. All the recipes I've tried were wonderful, including an exceptional fresh Ginger Cake that was delicious, moist & simple to make. The author's sense of humor really comes through and he makes dessert-making fun. I've tried his desserts at Chez Panisse and with this book, I've made a few favorites with great success. Yum! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The book suggests 7-9th grade students and I tried it with my 10th grade remedial classes--english language learners and some special needs kids. Although I thought the sentences were solid and the vocabulary cues subtle but effective, after about a month my kids were bored with the Romeo and Juliet story. I tried the strategy of using my own story line, which the book explains and suggests, but they just never had the excitement of following a running story line through the week's warmups that I thought they would get. I think this is a super system but Keister's grade level recommendations are definitely not stretchable, and I would be even a little leery about using this with 9th graders. Overall an awesome strategy!

Before I found Jane Bell Kiester's books, I didn't have a clear path to follow when teaching writing. The Caught'Ya books solve the problem of teaching your students grammar and mechanics. Each day students are given a sentence that adds to a story line appropriate for their age group. Students become engaged in the learning process throughout the story and often can't wait to see what happens next. Students become intimately involved in the story as they become part of the story when the teacher inserts their name as a character in the story. Although Caught'Ya's are integral to the teaching of grammar and mechanics, the greatest bonus I found in using these wonderful sentences was the fact that students naturally and easily learn to paragraph appropriately. This is a difficult task to teach and for students to understand. Caught'Ya's solve this for teachers and students alike. If you can't purchase any other resource this year, you must purchase one of Jane Bell Kiester's Caught'Ya books! Your students will learn to write in a way that will improve all test scores! Do not hesitate! This is the perfect purchase.

i teach high school english, 10th grade honors, to be exact. our school has no real grammar program -- and it shows! i've struggled with what to do about grammar, because de-contextualized grammar doesn't work and in-context takes longer to work than i have with my kids. i see almost no improvement. i grant that my situation is particularly abominable, but the point is: i got this book this summer and i have been doing it and i talked two of my colleagues into doing it with me and right now i don't even know where my book is because my dept seems to be sharing it. i haven't been doing it long enough to be sure, but i think this is going to work. it feels like it. it feels good so far. i think some stuff has already started to stick. that's cool.

The cake designs in this book use a combination of buttercream icing and chocolate accents. Instead of fondant, the authors use ganache, glaze, or buttercream to paint the canvas of the cake. Recipes for House Buttercream, Kaye's Buttercream, Chocolate Glaze, and a Whipped Chocolate Ganache are included. To fill the cakes, recipes for Lemon Curd, Whipped Cream, and Cookies and Cream are provided. The cakes themselves run the gamut from a traditional Chocolate Butter Cake to an artistic Ode to Jackson Pollock.

The Introduction to this book is a two-way conversation with Kaye and Liv. They discuss the Bakehouse itself (located in New York State), the merits of edible flowers, and Liv's special chocolate decorations. Part One moves into the basics of cake decorating. The authors provide a list of tools, instructions on working with chocolate, a color mixing chart, and step-by-step directions on preparing the cake for decoration (tilted and flat cakes are included here).

The Mini Birthday Cake recipe on pages 62 - 65 features a ten-inch tilted cake. These unusual cakes feature prominently in recent cake magazines and publications. One side of the cake is markedly higher than the other, creating a slope across the top surface of the cake. The Mini Birthday Cake is anything, however, but mini! At ten inches, it will comfortably serve 15 guests at your party. The authors introduce this cake as the product of a "Cat in the Hat baker". The cake is adorned with bright purple, orange, yellow, lime green, and teal buttercream icing.

The authors recommend using the Chocolate Butter Cake recipe (page 65) for the birthday cake. The recipe calls for coffee, cocoa powder, water, cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. The recipe calls for baking the cake in two 10x3" pans by increasing the baking time, it is only necessary to bake one 3" layer. The finished cake is moist and delicate, lending itself well to the suggested cookies and cream filling. The cake is billed as pleasing "screaming kids." I don't know about that, but it sure worked for my husband! The combination of coffee and cocoa gives the cake depth of flavor.

After baking and cooling the Chocolate Butter Cake, I prepared the Cookies and Cream filling (page 65). This simple recipe is truly astonishing. The recipe calls for heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and crushed Oreos. The taste was reminiscent of a heavy ice cream, but with the texture of a cloud. It is glorious. Combined with the Chocolate Butter Cake, it is truly a delight.

Once the cake had been layered and filled, I prepared the House Buttercream recipe (page 36). This recipe has a surprisingly high ratio of sugar to shortening and butter. For six cups of sugar, the recipe uses 2¾ cups high-ratio vegetable shortening in addition to 1½ sticks of butter. This ratio gives the icing an understated flavor, making it an ideal complement to the heady chocolate cake and filling. The icing requires a mixing time of 10 - 20 minutes in a large mixer. Due to the long mixing time, the icing is extremely light in texture, and has a very thin consistency. One full batch of this icing (9 1/2 cups), will ice and decorate the ten-inch mini birthday cake. The completed recipe will fill a five-quart mixing bowl. For hand mixers, you will need to cut the recipe in half.

The House Buttercream is ideally suited to the bright colors used in the Mini Birthday Cake. Very little color gel was needed to achieve a bright, vivid color. However, the high shortening and butter content makes this icing extremely greasy. While the texture is light and airy on the tongue, there is a sheen of shortening left on the palate after eating the icing. Also, the shortening makes for some extra work in cleaning up. Be sure to use a good grease-cutting detergent and hot water when washing out your mixing bowls. Parchment decorating bags may be a wise choice for this icing, cutting down on your cleaning time. The thin consistency of the icing is ideal for icing the cake, handling beautifully in large quantities. However, the Mini Birthday Cake calls for some string work garlands. Thin consistency icing will not fall correctly and has to be traced onto the cake, instead of pulling out a traditional string. This will impact the roundedness of the string work, and has to be compensated for by the decorator.

I got into cake decorating about six months ago and am now searching for adventurous things to try on my cakes. This book showed me how to use adorable chocolate creations to jazz up my cakes. The pictures are great. I had absolutely no trouble following the directions. This is a great book for those into cake decorating!

I received this as a gift and I love it. I had taken a cake decorating class and was excited about getting this book. It puts a new spin on the traditional methods of cake decorating. I have tried a few of the designs, and lots of the recipes- they are truly fantastic. Plus, they are very easy to understand with the step by step instructions- I have had a sucess every time. Not to mention the rave reviews from my friends on my "masterpieces". I would encouarge anyone to buy this book.

Taking the best of the best, Hodgman compiles a delectable collection of recipes aimed to please the most discriminating palate. Ok, it's not gourmet or even low-cal, but this is the best of the best and creative...who cares about the waistline!!!

Buy it, cook it and let your friends think you're the most amazing cook who ever walked the planet! Then go out and buy her "Beat That!" cookbook and continue the magic.

I am so, so pleased to find that Beat This! is back in print - and, even better news - that it now has a sibling - Beat That!. Beat This! might be the only cookbook I've ever read purely for pleasure. Ann Hodgman is the honest "voice of mom" you've always wanted to hear, and her sprightly commentary on family traditions ("My new husband actually played a record on Christmas night. A record! When (according to my family's traditions) you're supposed to pretend electricity doesn't exist at Christmastime! And he wanted lights on the tree...."), candy thermometers and all sorts of other things actually make me laugh out loud.

And the recipes are superb. So wonderful, in some cases, that I've found myself passing them off to guests as old family secrets rather than reveal my source. (Of course, I always told myself I was saving my guests the pain of finding out that this book was out of print...) Included are staples such as chocolate cake, fried chicken, and meat loaf, but there are other fun surprises, too. Did you even know you wanted the best Kimchi recepe? Or the best Artichoke and Mushroom Salad? How about the best Presto Torta? But trust me - you do and you will, once you buy this book, wonder how you ever did without them.

I have a "Trillion" cookbooks, and this one and her other cookbook, "Beat That", are my fabulous favorites. The recipes are sooooo good, and I have fun making her recipes to see if my family and friends agree. I had stumbled on, "Beat This", at our local library, and loved it. I wanted my own copy, but they must have been out of print. The library wouldn't let me buy it, so I accidently lost it, OOPS!! Then I got my wish, and bought it. A few months later, it came back in with fabulous new covers. I will be ordering these to give as Christmas gifts . These are alot of fun - buy them - and enjoy!

As the adoptive mom of a six year old adopted from China almost five years ago, I have been looking for a book to share with my daughter that could evoke the feelings we have about her special place in our lives. This comes very close. The story of this adoption journey to China rings true -- it is based on the author's own experience. Lewis' text is loving and joyful --tinged with the longing and sadness that is often part of adoptions. An essential element of this book and one that I especially appreciate is the author's mention of her feelings for her daughter's Chinese mother. We have read and re-read "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" at our house and it has sparked very necessary and important discussions with our daughter. Dyer's lovely watercolor illustrations are charming --and add to the warm loving tone of the story - it's just wonderful!

I just happen to be looking at the Children's books while at the mall with my children. And I picked it up, mostly because of the cover, the little girl was adorable. And I started reading it, and I couldn't believe the story. So standing in the book store I stood there, CRYING. I just loved the story. I told my husbands sister-in-law that if they adopt from China that they had better get this book, or I would get it for them. I recomend it to anyone that is adopting, but mostly from China. It's a longer read than I would normally get for a child. But I think they would grow to like it, and really understand that they are truely loved.

My daughter is from Russia, but she knows this story by heart. She can tell me exactly what that baby was missing: a Mama! Sara knows that this is her story too, just a slightly different place. This book has meant a lot to everybody who has read it, both adoptive and non-adoptive families. It is perfect for children of single-parent families, especially if they have a child from a foreign country. I especially love the part where the mother speaks of her baby's birth-mother with such love. That is exactly how I feel.